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Central Park Five and Yusef Salaam speak at the DNC – their history with Donald Trump explained

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Central Park Five and Yusef Salaam speak at the DNC – their history with Donald Trump explained

Top line

Members of the Central Park Five – a group of black and Latino men wrongfully convicted of raping and assaulting a white jogger in New York City in 1989 – are speaking on the fourth night of the Democratic National Convention, opposing former President Donald Trump, who took out harsh newspaper ads against the men when their now-overturned convictions dominated headlines in 1989.

Key data

Four members of the Central Park Five – Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise, Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson – are scheduled to speak at the DNC. The speech will be delivered by Reverend Al Sharpton, who criticized Trump’s treatment of the five men.

Not long after the jogger attack in the late 1980s, and before the Central Park Five went to trial, Trump took out full-page ads in several New York newspapers calling on New York State to reinstate the death penalty and “BRING BACK OUR POLICE” — $85,000 worth of ads that would become the crux of the friction.

Trump, then an influential business magnate in New York City, wrote in the ads: “These muggers and murderers … should suffer, and if they kill, they should be executed for their crimes.”

Trump defended the ads in an interview with CNN, saying he did not believe any of their messaging was “inflammatory” and suggested hate may be necessary to combat rampant crime in the United States.

Trump insisted that the Central Park Five case was a “disgrace” after the group reached a $41 million settlement with the city of New York in 2014, 12 years after their vindication.

By 2019, Trump had still not backed down from his stance and refused to apologize for comments he made about the group in 1989. At the White House, he said, according to the New York Times, “There are people on both sides of that side.”

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Surprising fact

One of the Central Park Five, Yusef Salaam, won a seat on the New York City Council last year. Months before his election, when Trump was facing white collar fraud charges in New York, Salaam tweeted a letter last year formatted similarly to Trump’s 1989 ads criticizing Trump for his comments and pointing to the former president’s arrest. Trump was later found guilty on all counts.

Important background

The Central Park Five claimed they were coerced into falsely confessing to the crimes against jogger Trisha Meili. Members of the group served between five and 13 years in prison for their wrongful convictions. The sentences were overturned in 2002 when convicted murderer Matias Reyes confessed to raping the jogger. His confession was confirmed by DNA evidence.

More information

Trump in an interview with the Central Park Five in 1989: “Maybe hate is exactly what we need” (CNN)

Black leaders denounce Trump’s criminal justice inconsistencies as he rails against guilty verdict (Los Angeles Times)

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